Argentine President Javier Milei made his debut at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, warning of the “tragic course” that the institution has taken. He accused the organization of being “socialist” and rejected “the collectivist policies of the 2030 Agenda.”
As he had already pointed out at the Davos Forum, the far-right president assured that he would fight against the sustainable development goals set by the UN in 2015 and to which Argentina has always recognized and adhered. Until now. These are multilateral efforts aimed at achieving the goals of eradicating poverty, protecting the environment and respecting human rights that all countries have committed to achieving by 2030.
“Socialist in nature”
“The 2030 Agenda is nothing more than a supranational government program of a socialist nature, which aims to solve the problems of modernity with solutions that threaten the sovereignty of the nation-state and violate the people’s right to life, liberty and property,” Milei said in a harsh speech with messianic overtones.
In the case of Latin America, the UN proposal includes issues such as poverty eradication, reduction of inequalities, inclusive economic growth with decent work and climate change, among others.
The far-right president said his goal was to “tell the world” what would happen if the United Nations continued to promote collectivist policies. “It has turned into a many-tentacled leviathan that seeks to decide not only what each nation state should do, but how all citizens of the world should live.”
Milei, who defines himself as a “libertarian liberal economist”, has never mentioned to the world the foreign debt that Argentina contracted with the International Monetary Fund (44 billion dollars) under the government of the conservative Mauricio Macri – by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, who today exercises the same function. Nor has he mentioned the economic figures, which have deteriorated considerably since he took office last December.
“This could have an impact on investments”
Mercedes D’Alessandro, economist, underlines elDiario.es the effects that this change of position could have on the country. “In Davos, Milei has already made her position clear: feminism and environmentalism are obstacles to development and the free market. This could therefore have negative consequences for Argentina. For example, if the Inter-American Development Bank seeks to finance policies against hunger, so that a million children do not go to bed without dinner (a figure reported by UNICEF in a campaign), it may not have an incentive to allocate these funds, since the Argentine State is not going to comply with the objectives of the pact or international agreements. This could therefore have an impact on investments.
In search of investments, Milei, accompanied by his minister Caputo, met again with the tech mogul Elon Musk, this time in New York. D’Alessandro adds: “Musk has already said that he will invest, of course, he will surely do it in the lithium sector and within the RIGI: without having to hire employees, without paying a series of taxes, in a privileged situation. In any case, we have not yet seen any investment. In fact, the gross domestic product fell by 3.4% in the first half of the year, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, due to the recession and the drop in consumption.
The ultra-president did not mention climate change, one of the great global threats, in his speech. Just as his ideological ally Jair Bolsonaro did when he governed Brazil, Milei calls this “the new lie of socialism” and opposes any agreement that alleviates this scourge. The signing of the decree of necessity and urgency annulled Law 26,815 on the management and control of fires, and in this way, the national state ignores disasters, such as the fires that the province of Córdoba is currently fighting.
No pact for the future
In the same vein, Milei announced that Argentina would also dissociate itself from the Future Pact, which provides for 56 actions to address challenges such as climate change, peacekeeping, international law, global financial architecture and the potential threats of artificial intelligence (AI). One of the actions proposes to achieve “gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls as a decisive contribution to the advancement of all sustainable development goals.” The Future Pact was signed by the vast majority of countries that make up the UN and rejected by a small group of countries such as Russia, Iran, Nicaragua and North Korea.
Argentina is becoming more isolated. Since taking office nine months ago, the president has had diplomatic disagreements with Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Chile. At this UN assembly, before Milei spoke, his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro made a telling comment. “They are the ones who say what is thought, what is said, what should be banned and silenced. And in their power of censorship, they shout ‘long live fucking freedom,’ but it is only the freedom of the richest 1% of the world’s population.”
Along similar lines, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also at the United Nations, appeared to allude to far-right leaders like Milei. “In a globalized world, we must not resort to false patriots, but neither must we resort to the hopes offered by ultraliberals who aggravate the difficulties of the region.”
Argentina is changing its position before the world and abandoning its neutrality in international conflicts. This is what Milei anticipated: “From this day on, know that Argentina will abandon the position of historical neutrality that characterized us and will be at the forefront of the struggle for the defense of freedom.” Its alignment with Israel is known, which he highlighted as “the only country in the Middle East that defends liberal democracy.”
